Current Status
The War Assets Administration eventually turned the air base over to local government officials. The airfield was converted to civil use and is now known as Pratt Regional Airport. For a time, in the early 1950s, it hosted a component of McDonnell Aircraft and was used for testing of the XF-88 Voodoo, predecessor of the later F-101 Voodoo, using the much older McDonnell F2H Banshee as a chase plane.
Today, most of the airfield has returned to agricultural use, with a large area from the NE/SW runway becoming cattle feed pens. A large area was also converted of the NW/SE runway, both being reduced to single-lane concrete roadways. The civil airmport runway being a portion of the N/S military runway from Prat AAF. The large aircraft parking apron remains, part of it being used as the terminal of Pratt Regional Airport and for aircraft parking space; much of it, however is used for non-aviation activities. Several wartime hangars remain standing and are in use for various activities.
The station area has been redeveloped into Pratt Airport Industrial Park. It has become a full-service, 200-acre platted park with buildings and sites available in an enterprise zone. The park is managed by the Pratt Airport Authority. Outlines of wartime structures removed from the site are visible in aerial photography in otherwise grassy areas. Many streets remain in-use along with the outline of the base parade ground and headquarters.
The former wartime airfield can be reached travelling north on U.S. Route 281 from Pratt. The B-29 All Veterans Memorial at the airport was dedicated on Memorial Day weekend, 2003. The memorial honors ALL veterans, prisoners of war, and the missing in action from ALL conflicts.
Read more about this topic: Pratt Army Airfield
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